Monday's Minutes

“Monday’s Minutes” is a weekly post in which I track my bookish life.  All book covers are linked to Goodreads unless otherwise noted.

Currently Reading:

  • The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien – for #FanspeakTheRing
  • Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
  • Son of the Shadows by Juliet Marillier
  • A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

towers starlight shadows
darker
Finished:

  • Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon

written

Challenges:

Total pages read: 443

Total # of books for the year: 77.  Now that I’ve finished Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, I can’t wait until the next book is out!  I need to know more about what happened with Brianna and Roger.  From my understanding, it’s going to be at least another year until the next book, and now I kind of wish I had waited to read this one.  However, I’m mostly glad I didn’t because I probably would’ve forgotten many of the important plot points and would have spent a lot of time looking things up in the Outlandish Companion.

I decided to put The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne back on the shelf for now.  I don’t know when I’ll pick it back up, but it wasn’t grabbing my attention at all.  I kept getting distracted by the other books I’ve been reading.

What are you reading this week?

#FitReaders Check-In

FitReaders2016
  • This check-in is for November 18th – 24th.
  • I’m no longer tracking my food and the only reason why is because I’m not eating at restaurants or eating other easily trackable (i.e. pre-packaged) meals much anymore.  Instead, I’m cooking at home and eating real food.  Trying to figure up the nutrition information for everything takes up far too much of my time; time that could be used to sit and enjoy my food.
  • I won’t say that everything I eat is super healthy, but it’s full of flavor, which means I’m eating less because I’m more quickly satisfied.  I’m also taking in fewer calories and less fat, sodium, and sugar, just from the fact that I have control over the ingredients.  I’m also only eating when I’m hungry, and allowing myself to have a snack if I get hungry between meals.  I’m much happier than I was when I was trying to track everything I put in my mouth.
  • I still need to improve on getting enough water, though.
  • If you have a FitBit, you can find me HERE.
  • Steps: 24,070/49,000
  • Miles: 8.36/17.5
  • Active Minutes: 56/150
  • Days I Drank 64 ounces of Water: 2/7
  • Total Money Donated: $24.37/$25.00

Monday's Minutes

“Monday’s Minutes” is a weekly post in which I track my bookish life.  All book covers are linked to Goodreads unless otherwise noted.

Currently Reading:

  • The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien – for #FanspeakTheRing
  • Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
  • The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • Son of the Shadows by Juliet Marillier
  • A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
  • Written in my Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon

towers starlight seven-gables
shadows darker written
 

Challenges:

Total pages read: 506

Total # of books for the year: 76.

What are you reading this week?

#ShelfLove: A Thank You Note to the Book Blogging Community

Shelf Love Challenge 2016
 
Dear Book Blogging Community,
Over the years I’ve been in one group or another having to do with politics, feminism, or a specific social issue that took precedence in my life for one reason or another.  None of those groups provided me with what I was looking for or inspired me to get more involved.  Whether they were all action and no talk or all talk and no action, they weren’t good fits for me.
When I started this blog, I began connecting with other book bloggers and discovered the best community I have ever considered myself to be a member.  This has been especially true during this election cycle when I began seeing my social media feeds turn more and more negative.
I began unfollowing or muting people whose posts started trending towards political rants.  I was especially quick to unfollow those who made blanket statements about whole groups of people or implied that replacing misogyny with misandry was acceptable.  However, I continued to follow those of you in the book blogging community because your friendship mattered more to me, I didn’t consider you to be strangers, and you occasionally said something so inspiring or spot-on that I made an exception.  I had a few heart to heart conversations with some of you and I’m glad I had those conversations and continued to read what you had to say whether on your blogs, Twitter, Facebook or Litsy.
Why?  Because my feeds are now full of inspiration, legitimate calls to action against hate and violence, and book recommendations for learning more about and understanding the political and social issues that are especially important right now.  I’m also seeing more about books in general and my feeds feel less cluttered and bogged down with negativity and garbage.  Instead of avoiding them, I’m checking them more often than ever to keep up with what’s going on.  You have also re-activated my activism and reminded me why I’m a feminist.  And I now have another lengthy list of books to check out and read 🙂
Thank you, fellow book bloggers, from the bottom of my heart, for providing me with a place that I feel at home.
Love,
The Girl in the Book Fort

#COYER Black Out: Winter Storm

wintercoyer-16-17
This COYER, from December 17th to March 3rd, is much more strict than it has been in the past.  Participants can only read ebooks we already own and got for less than $1 or audiobooks we got for less than $5.
However, there is the “generator” option, but I won’t be taking advantage of that.  If you would like to know more about using your generator, click on the COYER picture to get the full details over at the official COYER website.
Since the rules are tight this time, I’m not going to read any ebooks until December 17th, and I’m going to concentrate on finishing the books I’m currently in the middle of reading.  Once COYER starts, I’ll concentrate on reading as many of my ARCs as possible.  With any luck, I’ll get completely caught up on them.  Since library books don’t count, I’ll also be focusing on the few audiobooks I own that I got for free.
Usually, my goal for COYER is 10 books, but this time I’m going to try for 12.  Bout of Books is coming up during the first week of January and I’m taking vacation during that week as well, so I’m fairly certain I can manage 12 books by March.
Are you participating in COYER?

#FitReaders Check-In

FitReaders2016
  • This check-in is for November 11th – 17th.
  • I pulled my groin muscle 🙁
  • If you have a FitBit, you can find me HERE.
  • Steps: 26,081/49,000
  • Miles: 9.03/17.5
  • Active Minutes: 39/150
  • Days I Tracked My Food: 0/7
  • Days I Drank 64 ounces of Water: 1/7
  • Total Money Donated: $24.29/$25.00

Monday's Minutes

“Monday’s Minutes” is a weekly post in which I track my bookish life.  All book covers are linked to Goodreads unless otherwise noted.

Currently Reading:

  • The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien – for #FanspeakTheRing
  • Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
  • The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • Son of the Shadows by Juliet Marillier
  • A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
  • Written in my Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon

towers starlight seven-gables
shadows darker written
Finished:

  • Murder on the Half Shelf by Lorna Barrett

half-shelf

Challenges:

Total pages read: 658

Total # of books for the year: 76.  I put aside A Free Man of Color by Barbara Hambly.  I’m not DNFing it, but I just can’t seem to get into it right now, so I’ll try again sometime next year.  I’ve also put aside The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley, but I’m going to try to pick it back up next month.  I’m trying to stick to my “rule” of only having six books going at one time, and the other books I’m reading have been getting much more of my attention than these two.

What are you reading this week?

#FitReaders Check-In

FitReaders2016
  • This check-in is for November 4th – 10th.
  • The Texas Book Festival was over the weekend.  I was only able to go on Saturday, but, WOW, did I get a lot of steps racked up!  I walked over 12K steps, and I definitely felt it the next day.
  • I’m having a really difficult time getting my butt out of bed early enough to get a workout in, shower, and make it to work on time.  If you have any ideas to help me get motivated, please share them in the comments.
  • If you have a FitBit, you can find me HERE.
  • Steps: 32,617/49,000
  • Miles: 11.76/17.5
  • Active Minutes: 162/150
  • Days I Tracked My Food: 2/7
  • Days I Drank 64 ounces of Water: 1/7
  • Total Money Donated: $24.20/$25.00

Monday's Minutes

“Monday’s Minutes” is a weekly post in which I track my bookish life.  All book covers are linked to Goodreads unless otherwise noted.

Currently Reading:

  • The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien – for #FanspeakTheRing
  • Murder on the Half Shelf by Lorna Barrett
  • Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
  • The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley
  • A Free Man of Color by Barbara Hambly
  • The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne

towers half-shelf starlight
haunted free seven-gables
Finished:

  • Shelf Life by Suzanne Strempek Shea

shelf

Challenges:

Total pages read: 447

Total # of books for the year: 75.   This weekend was the Texas Book Festival.  I was only able to attend on Saturday, but I ended up bringing home six books and two coloring books despite planning to get only two books.  The authors on the panels I went to made their books sound so wonderful that I couldn’t help but scoop them up from the buying tables and get in line to get them signed.  It was a fabulous and exhausting Saturday and I have absolutely no regrets 🙂

What are you reading this week?

#FitReaders Check-In

FitReaders2016
  • This check-in is for October 28th – November 3rd.
  • Mandatory overtime is finally over!  Now I just have to get my butt out of bed to go workout in the mornings.
  • My new FitBit is much more accurate than my old one, and it turns out, I haven’t been getting nearly as many steps or burning as many calories as my old one was counting 🙁  No wonder I haven’t been losing any weight.
  • I wrote up a new plan, which means some new goals, but I haven’t implemented it yet, so I’m going to wait until the next check-in to list them below.
  • If you have a FitBit, you can find me HERE.
  • Steps: 24,093/49,000
  • Miles: 8.45/17.5
  • Active Minutes: 108/150
  • Days I Tracked My Food: 0/7
  • Days I Drank 64 ounces of Water: 0/7
  • Total Money Donated: $23.82/$25.00